Excess Baggage (1997)

Well-built romantic comedy with the gorgeous Alicia Silverstone,despite your partner to be a reasonable actor, as Benicio Del Toro,in the casting have a lot of good names like Walken as unusual character as the good uncle in charge to find out whereabout of the girl and the kidnappers and Sally Kirkland as interesting and funny waitress who gave a clue to Waken without notice,several hilarious moments in total disagreements from IMDB's reviewers!!!!Resume:First watch: 1999 / How many: 3 / Source: Cable-DVD / Rating: 7

A displeased pampered princess (Alicia Silverstone), whose crooked millionaire father (Jack Thompson) has problems arising with the Securities and Exchange Commission (taps on his phone by the authorities hoping he will give away details to put him in prison), stages a phony kidnapping just to get pops' attention (and hopefully his support; she later even envisions him personally removing her from the trunk with affection on his face and in voice to the media gathering about), but her car is stolen by a master thief (Benicio Del Toro), taken to his garage housing other confiscated vehicles. So it assumed Del Toro is the kidnapper and thanks to a feisty, uncooperative (and misbehaving) Silverstone, he loses control of the situation, the garage (thanks to a lit cigarette from Silverstone, hurled into a barrel with rags inside) sets afire with all the stolen, high-priced luxury vehicles going up in explosive flames as well. Del Toro was paid handsomely for the thefts and those who handed over the cash want it back because their cars went kaboom. If he could just get the money to them (Nicholas Turturro and Michael Bowen), perhaps Del Toro could still escape relatively unscathed, but then Silverstone's uncle enters the picture and complicates matters. That uncle is played (thankfully) by Christopher Walken and he "holds onto" the money in the duffle bag until Del Toro takes him to Silverstone as confirmation that she's okay. Then Turturro and Bowen realize that Silverstone could bring a hefty payday to them, so a real kidnapping will commence (Silverstone wasn't forthcoming to Del Toro, making her father think he had in fact took her hostage and "had her touch his penis"!), with Del Toro and Walken having to join forces to intervene.Personally, as much as I loved Silverstone in Clueless (1995) back in the day, I found her damn near insufferable in Excess Baggage. She reminded me of those spoiled brats needing to use shock methods to get Daddy Warbucks' attention. She is a difficult, pain-in-the-ass for Del Toro who just needs to deposit her some place and be done with her. But you wouldn't have a romantic comedy if it ended thirty minutes into the film with Del Toro and Silverstone parting ways (which, realistically, would have happened fifteen minutes in, but I digress…).Walken, thank goodness, rescues us from a complete failure with his effortless command of the screen as the "fixer" who knows how to get things done for his brother. My favorite scene (well, all of Walken's scenes are worthwhile, but this one specifically made me smile) has Del Toro awakening to discover Walken hovering over him (inside a hideaway cabin of Del Toro's). I have always liked how Walken can project so many attributes like charm, appeal, with a smooth control even when circumstances might result in panic, while, at the same time, there's always that thought he could kill your ass without blinking, without breaking a sweat. I never thought he would in this film, but, just the same, when he looks down at Del Toro, for a moment, he seemed primed to put a bullet in him. It is like a smile could (or could not) hide violent intent. While Silverstone snarls in a diner scene as Walken walks in (with Del Toro hoping he gets the money to take to his car dealer partner, Harry Connick, Jr. ("Gosh.")), sitting at the table, trying to convince her to come home to Alexander, he carries her along with expert ease, the conversation made bearable just because is in it. Del Toro does his actor-studio shtick, using his hands and shrugging a lot, but he'd make up for this rather annoying performance later with great work in the likes of Traffic (2000), The Hunted (2003), 21 Grams (2003), and Savages (2012). He does convey obvious frustration which, considering what his character must tolerate thanks to Silverstone's immature antics, makes perfect sense. Consider this a waste of talent, with a nice rock soundtrack, and a Walken supporting part to treasure. Nothing more or less.

Actress Alicia Silverstone's latest starring vehicle "Excess Baggage" opens amid a frenzy of activity like an inspired screwball comedy. Midway through the movie director Marco Brambilla and his scribes flagrantly shift gears from a sparkling comedy to a tedious kidnapping drama about an unhappy heiress and a woebegone car thief. Fans of the "Clueless" starlet may find "Excess Baggage" a puzzling departure for Silverstone who wielded ultimate creative authority over both script and casting. Perhaps she is more to blame for the muddled quality of "Excess Baggage" than either Brambilla or the writers. Never as entertaining as "Clueless" but better than "Batman & Robin," "Excess Baggage" arrives as something of a letdown after Silverstone's long screen absence.Cast as Emily T. Hope, the moody daughter of a man richer than Donald Trump, Silverstone constantly struggles to elicit her icy hearted, corporate father's affections. Australian actor Jack ("'Breaker' Morant") Thompson plays the father who has grown weary of his daughter's outlandish schemes to attract his attention. When he sent her away to a boarding school, Emily torched the place. As "Excess Baggage" unfolds, she has convinced not only her father but also the FBI that kidnappers are holding her for a million dollar ransom. Lamely, Emily hopes that her rescue from her bogus kidnappers will rekindle her papa's love. So she gags, tapes and cuffs herself before she jumps into the trunk (not a stunt you should try) of her BMW.Just as it looks as if everything is going Emily's way, a car thief spots her Beamer in a parking garage and steals it as she lies helpless in the trunk. No sooner does Vincent (Benicio Del Toro) wheel his latest trophy onto the street than a swarm of police cars descends on him. A tire-screeching chase ensues, and Vincent manages to shake his pursuers. He pulls into a nondescript warehouse that conceals his stolen vehicles. Vincent is an expert car thief who boosts expensive sports cars. When he puts the car on the rack, he notices that it wobbles. Imagine his shock when he finds a babe chick inside bound and gagged. Vincent slams the trunk! Since he cannot think of anything else, he calls his partner-in-crime Greg (Harry Connick, Jr), a car salesman.Meanwhile, Emily's suspicious father calls in his right hand man, Uncle Ray (Christopher Walken) to find his daughter. After Emily breaks out of the car, she calls pop, but hangs up when Vincent returns. Eventually, Vincent decides to leave her on foot far out in the forest. That's when he discovers her identity and that his car warehouse stands in a pile of smoking ashes. Now, the guys who paid Vincent to steal the cars (Nicholas Turturro & Michael Bowen) want their $200-thousand dollars back. Spotting Emily, they pull guns on Vincent and take Emily hostage with a million dollar ransom demand. It seems that "Excess Baggage" is a series of kidnappings and abductions.The inventive but offbeat script hangs together by the most improbable threads. The more unlikely the circumstances are, the more colossal the dramatic outcome appears. Anyway, whoever thought to demand realism out of an Alicia Silverstone comedy? Suddenly, "Excess Baggage" wanders off on other subplots that distract from Vincent and Emily. Not only that but the story slows down and a pall hovers over the characters. Realism tries to intrude on an Alicia Silverstone movie.Screwball comedy dictates that Vincent heists the same car that Emily uses to stash her body. A smoldering cigarette that she tosses into a rag bin later engulfs Vincent's neat hideout in flames. Neither Vincent nor Emily appreciate their predicament. Just when Vincent rids himself of Emily, he needs her and she needs him. Later, when Ray captures Vincent and confiscates his money, Emily comes to his rescue. Less than amused, the gruff Ray explains to Emily that she has committed a serious crime. They need to use Vincent as the fall guy to take her place."Clueless" it ain't. Director Marco Brambilla, whose only previous directing credit is Sly Stallone's "Demolition Man," whips these disparate elements together with such verve and style until Emily and Vincent team up. The action stalls out along with the humor and movie goes in search of a genre. Is this still a comedy? Or is it a social problem film? About the same time that the story loses its momentum, we learn what an insensitive brute her father truly is. Jack Thompson's stuck-up dad feels absolutely no sympathy for his daughter and finds a business appointment infinitely preferable to her attentions.Writer Max D. Adams and comedy veterans Dick Clement and Ian Frenais fumble in their efforts to maintain a consistent feeling and atmosphere in the story. After Emily and Vincent fall for each other, Alicia Silverstone's character spends several scenes off-camera. We get to follow the misadventures of poor Vincent who gets kidnapped not only by Ray but his criminal cronies. The focus shifts from the burgeoning relationship between Emily and Vincent and settles on the mechanics of a crime thriller. There's even a shoot-out at the end, and Alicia drives a forklift with the front end of a car on it through a wall. The filmmakers clearly lose interest in their characters when they let the leads take a back seat to the crazy twists and turns of the plot. But the ending isn't so neat. Emily's father couldn't care two bits for his daughter and wings it off to a business conference.If anybody holds this uneven caper together it's star and producer Alicia Silverstone. Although she is looking a little fleshy around the curves, Silverstone's china-doll eyes and her crooked smile are all the charisma this movie should have needed. The amazing thing is that Silverstone allows her character to be shuttled off-camera, something that rarely happened in "Clueless."

Okay, so people might think I'm crazy for voting this 10 out of 10. The usual response and comment everywhere I look seems to be a negative one. But I was sitting here the other night, we just moved into a new house. I love the new environment, and I was ready for the new year. I was up late, as always, and this movie came on TBS. I had just watched Clueless with Alicia in, and I thought if I could stay awake long enough, I would watch this. I love Walken and Silverstone, but had never seen Toro in much. So I started watching it. I thought at first it was funny, hilarious, and enthralling. The way the girl tied herself up and put herself in the trunk, and was extorting her dad for money. I first thought she really wanted the money. Then I figured out it didn't matter, she wanted attention. It was a cry for help. Then I see sexy del Toro steal the car and freak out when he opened the trunk and saw her in there. The scene where Uncle Ray (Walken) saw she framed her fire news article...was hilarious and brilliant. And the scene at Knotty Pines where she said "you don't have to be drunk to kiss me"...and he said "I'm not drunk"...absolutely brilliant. Not too much love scene, then the scene the next morning by the lake was touching. I loved it whenever he's talking to her dad, and he says, "Are you telling me I've only known this girl two days and already I care more about her than you do?" Wonderful. And the scene at the end of the movie...I TOTALLY knew he was in the trunk. And they're sitting there in the trunk and he says "what a view"..she says "What makes it a view?" he says "You" and then Dave Matthews starts playing "Crash Into Me"...perfect song, then he goes to kiss her and he does that "come on, come on, come on, come on, come on" thing...and they close the trunk. Perfect ending. Okay, so I loved the movie. I think that's clear. But if any person watched this and hated it, they need to go back and watch it again without thinking too hard about it. You won't hate it then!